I don't think anyone has truly ever experienced pain until they've had a blister on their nipple that is repeatedly agitated by a plastic pump and a sucking child.  Ouch!! See, what had happened was, KH decided she would sleep hard one night.  That doesn't happen very often and I woke up somewhat refreshed.  I couldn't wake her up enough to feed before I left for work so I had to pump.  Well, my joy from being refreshed soon faded.  I noticed when I was pumping that it was slightly uncomfortable but didn't think anything about it.  My average pump these days is anywhere from 3-6 ounces.  On that particular sitting, it was 9.  6 out of one side.  My guess is that I was so full, it rubbed a blister.  Maybe.  I'm not a medical professional so my own personal speculation and ridicule is all I can attest to.  Anyway, I was hence presented with a new struggle.  On a side note, my lactation consultant asked why I always have weird breastfeeding problems.  I said it's simple.  If I didn't have problems, what would I have to blog about?  Anyway, I now had to figure out a way to pump and feed without being in excruciating pain.

A few entries back, I mentioned a friend told me about using lanolin with the pump.  I did until I got used to it, then stopped.  Now that I had the blister, I decided to try it out and see.  It was a miracle!! I could pump with no pain!  The next problem was breastfeeding.  How could I do that with as little pain as possible?  Lanolin wouldn't be a solution because KH would take it off so quickly.  I was instructed to line her up so that the top of her mouth is the closest to the wound.  There is supposed to be less suction at that point and thereby less pain.  Victory!! I tried different positions to make sure that was the best and it, by far, was.

Prior to rubbing the blister, my body decided it didn't want to let down to the pump if the baby was nearby.  That's a problem.  I would go through 2-5 cycles of the let down part on the machine.  That's 4-10 minutes of the machine trying to make something happen and my body laughing at it.  When I started using the lanolin on the blister, I noticed I didn't have that problem.  I had asked a friend about her success on breastfeeding and what her current status was.  She mentioned having the same problem as me.  After I correlated the lanolin with a quicker let down, I told her about it.  She had tried it for another reason, it escapes me right now, and noticed the same effect.  She didn't put two and two together until I mentioned it.  It seems as if lanolin as a lubricant for the flanges will help with let down.  It's far from a miracle reliever of all problematic symptoms, but it worked.

I get the feeling there was some other problem I was going to post about but it escapes me at this sleepy hour of the night.  Tomorrow it will probably come to me and I will remember to blog about it in a month.  Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.  Yes, it's June.  I know.  I'm a bit delirious and thought it would be a fun touch.  Until next time!